here the president of the united states on martin luther king day is giving it that much time. >> vice president biden is speaking at the commander-in-chief ball. >> they know who you are. they know what you've done. 1.7, 1.7 million of you have walked across the scorching sands of iraq or been in those god for saken mountains and plains of afghanistan. many of you just haven't served one tour. you have served two, three, four, five, the last time of the 23 or four times i've been in afghanistan and iraq, i was flying into bagram in a c-17. i went into the cockpit. the load master was there and i said, how many of you is this your first tour? nobody raised their hand. i said second tour. one. third tour. two. fourth, one. fifth, two. ladies and gentlemen, we have never, never, never in the history of america asked so much of a generation. and you have met it with incredible pride. the joint chiefs of staff has prepared you in a way that always sort of takes my breath away every time i see you in theater. one of the great honors of my life has been to visit many of you when you were ser